New York, NY

Discussion in 'The Lounge' started by cajuntitan, Aug 7, 2007.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. cajuntitan

    cajuntitan 26.2ers can do it for hrs

    525
    73
    344
    Hey everyone,

    I have a question for all of ya'll. I am going on a family vacation to New York this December. It will be my first time in new york. For those of you that live in new york or have been there, could you give me some advice on some of the places we should visit while there. We will be staying in mid town. Are there any really cool places that maybe aren't over publicized that only the locals know about. The bad thing about this request is the places we go need to be mostly family oriented or atleast not x-rated. I will be there with my wife. Any advice would be appreciated. thanks:))
     
  2. MJTitans

    MJTitans Chris Whitley look him up

    1,831
    346
    309
    Well, in December it's probably worth seeing all the Christmas windows at the stores along 5th ave... definitely can get crowded, but they are pretty cool - your wife would probably love it. Another one that is typical, but still might be worth it is going to the top of either the Empire State Building or Rockefeller Center... I never get tired of doing that when friends or family come into town. I think night is the best time for all that stuff.

    Another great view of the city is from a more unknown place - the lobby of the Mandarin Oriental hotel (at Columbus Circle). The hotel lobby is on like the 30th or 40th floor, and it overlooks central park & midtown. They have tables where you can get a drink or some food and relax a bit. The lunch there is good but I remember it being a little pricey - we usually just go and get a pot of hot chocolate (get the Jacques Torres "wicked" hot chocolate - it's got a little bit of a spicy kick to it). Another kind of cool place is a coffee shop called 71 Irving Place (at 18th st and Irving Place - near Union Square). Just a local hangout, but lots of celebs live in the area so it's not unusual to see people there.

    Of course there's tons of great music around. I have some friends (Wes Hutchinson, Ann Holly) that play regularly at Joe's Pub, Rockwood Music Hall and the Bitter End. Tons of Jazz clubs that I always forget the names of, except one that is a restaurant too - Cleopatra's Needle. The food isn't great, but the jazz is free and usually pretty good.

    We eat out waayy to much, so I can give tons of restaurant recommendations. Some good brunch places are Public and Penelope. Some cool casual restaurants are Stand (the roasted marshmallow milkshake is incredible), Pio Pio (pretty much the only thing on the menu is roasted chicken, but it's the best I've ever had... almost always a bit of a wait... it's far North but if you go to any museums on the Upper East Side it's near them), Nolita House (love it, and Nolita is a cool neighborhood - my wife shops down there all the time), Peanut Butter & Co (yep, pretty much just peanut butter sandwiches). If you like ethnic food, Swagat is the best Indian (upper west side near natural history museum), Turkuaz is a cool Turkish place that feels like you're in a tent, Tea & Sympathy (not "ethnic" but a popular place to get a proper English tea), El Paso Taqueria is great authentic Mexican (we live around the corner and are addicted), Balthazar a great French place and also has a great brunch (I think the rest. they went to on Sex & the City is supposed to be Balthazar) - probably need reservations, and some great Italian places... Carmine's (all huge family style portions, though), Becco's (the only rest. in the theater district that is worth it - just get the pasta "sampler", probably need reservations) and Teodora. Man, I could go on forever... If you want to splurge a bit more (but they aren't outrageous) Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill and Bar Americain are 2 of our favorites (Bar has a better atmosphere), and Mario Batali's places are always rated some of the best in the city. We've only been to Casa Mono (really good - don't get scared by any strange ingredients you see) but Babbo's is often rated the best in the city. New Yorkers also eat at the street vendors all the time - visitors have the impression the food is nasty or not sanitary, but they have some great food... love the falafels and gyros.

    Hmm... I guess most of that was about food. Oh well. That's about all we do - eat and hang out in central park. If we have money left over from food we blow it shopping in Nolita (NOrth of LIttle ITAly). All the museums are great, if you like that kind of stuff. We got to the Met when we want a quiet weekend break. Some cool stuff around for kids, too - but it sounds like it's just you & your wife?
     
  3. Childress79

    Childress79 Loungefly ®

    8,099
    1,676
    779
    Dang now I want to go.

    Great reply MJTitans.:yes:
     
  4. cajuntitan

    cajuntitan 26.2ers can do it for hrs

    525
    73
    344
    MJTitans,

    Thanks alot, my wife and I love ethnic food and your list will def. help us decide among the thousands of rest. Would always rather eat where the locals like to eat, because they've had a chance to sample. Thanks again.

    My wife and I are runners and I will be in the last month of training for a marathon and she will be training for a half marathon while we are in NY. Would you suggest running in central park? If not where might be another good place. Also do you know of any really cool running or triathalon stores.
     
  5. MJTitans

    MJTitans Chris Whitley look him up

    1,831
    346
    309
    No problem... We love NY. So a running/triathlon store? Not too sure, but I think there is supposed to be a good one in the Time Warner Center (at columbus circle). Something like the Running Store.

    Central Park is a great place to run - there are several different loops you can take, and the park is just a cool place to be to begin with. You can read up on the loops on the park website. That's definitely where most people go to bike/run/rollerblade.

    A lot of people also run along the East river - there is a path that runs along it. I'm not sure how far south it goes, but I know it ends around 86th st at Carl Shurtz park...
     
  6. cajuntitan

    cajuntitan 26.2ers can do it for hrs

    525
    73
    344
    MJ, my wife and I were talking the other day and we were curious. Is there any places that you would suggest we avoid? For whatever reason.
     
  7. DCtitan49

    DCtitan49 Guest

    stay away from peep shows, they arent what you think, you dont get to see santa clause and all your presents earlier.

    uhh, timesquare is really cool, if your going to be there near New Years, you have to see the ball drop, i did it, it would be a great expierence for your family, but dont go all the way in, because in order to see the ball from the normal location, you show up at 3 PM, wait on the street with 90,000 other people, until midnight, there is a place where you can see the ball outside of all that chaos.

    Rockafella is nice, Grand Central, ground zero, empire state building, alot of stuff to do, jsut walk around and your bound to see alot.
     
  8. MJTitans

    MJTitans Chris Whitley look him up

    1,831
    346
    309
    Not really... as far as safety goes there aren't really many places left in NY that aren't safe most hours of the day or night. There are some areas on the Lower East Side that I've heard are best to avoid late at night, and there are some clubs in Chelsea that have had several problems outside at night - but that usually means like 3AM. If you venture up to Harlem, you are generally fine anywhere (we live near Spanish Harlem and have never felt unsafe) but there have been some problems with teenagers around 125th and Lenox Ave, which is a few blocks away from the Apollo (and Bill Clinton's office). There are occasional reports about pickpocketers around Times Square. So generally unless you are walking down a dark deserted street late at night you are fine - and it's very hard to even find a deserted street in Manhattan any more. It's so compact in NY - more people live in my building than did in my entire neighborhood in Charlotte... and we had much more crime in that neighborhood than all the Upper East Side of NY.

    For other reasons - Times Square is fun to see but outside of New Year's there's not a lot of reason to spend much time there. Soho is cool, but on a Sat. afternoon it gets obnoxiously crowded and it's losing it's edge... East & West Village are closer to what Soho used to be. The southern tip of the park can be a little touristy - it gets much cooler above 65th st... usually some very fun people watching around the bandshell (near 70th). Lombardi's is a famous pizza place that is ok, but I think overrated. I definitely agree with DCTitan about Grand Central - my favorite building in NY, and there are actually some cool little shops and some decent places to eat.
     
  9. CRUDS

    CRUDS Moderator Staff

    23,237
    6,882
    1,189
    Things must have changed.. It's been a coupla years but Times Square used to be a nightmare of pick-pockets and she-male thugs. They used to have signs down in the subway terminals that said stuff like "the guy behind you plans on stealing your wallet".
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  • Welcome to goTitans.com

    Established in 2000, goTitans.com is the place for Tennessee Titans fans to talk Titans. Our roots go back to the Tennessee Oilers Fan Page in 1997 and we currently have 4,000 diehard members with 1.5 million messages. To find out about advertising opportunities, contact TitanJeff.
  • The Tip Jar

    For those of you interested in helping the cause, we offer The Tip Jar. For $2 a month, you can become a subscriber and enjoy goTitans.com without ads.

    Hit the Tip Jar